AND MOSES PRAYED

Sin and death. Murmuring and discouragement; those adverse elements, were in evidence. The children of Israel had left Mount Hor and were intending to compass the land of Edom. They had no bread or water and they loathed the manna. In their foolhardiness they spoke against God and against Moses. For their sin judgement fell, and a scourge of fiery serpents attacked the camp, fatally biting many of the people. God reiterated His unchanging truth that sin brings judgement. Although they had with them the presence of God, that did not give them licence to sin. Confession of sin and the faithful intercessory praying of Moses again caused God to set up a condition of deliverance for the people.

Salvation and life. God, in response to Moses’ intercession, instructed him to make a brass, fiery-looking serpent and set it high on a standard. The object chosen by God corresponded to the deadly serpents that He sent among the people. It was cold and lifeless, to represent what God was able to do for the Israelite - take away the fatal sting and render it harmless. When a live serpent bit an Israelite he escaped death by looking upon the brazen serpent. Its efficacy reached out to everyone who would look upon it.

Observe the importance of Moses’ intercession. It came at a critical time in the experience of the Israelites. Without the people’s confession and Moses’ intercession, the people’s individual faith and march would have ended here. Moses’ prayer made God’s grace active in granting this miraculous deliverance from the very judgement for sin which God Himself was bringing. At the same time, only the person who looked up at the representative symbol experienced deliverance.

Christ, set up publicly on the standard of a cross, was a visible sign to all people, of the guilt He was bearing. He died as representative of the race of sinners, but salvation only comes to those who look up to Him in faith. Moses’ intercession played a vital role in the deliverance of the stricken Israelites; so, our intercession for lost sinners plays an important role in their salvation.

Will you pray earnestly for God to send the power down for the conviction and conversion of souls?